186 
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN. 
cular, and capable of being expanded like a net, supported by the elastic 
mandibles to the breadth of nine and a half inches. 
Head small, oblong ; neck long, stout ; body full, rather flattened. Feet 
short and very stout ; tibia bare at its lower part, covered all round with 
small scales ; tarsus shorty very stout, compressed, covered all round with 
hexagonal scales, of which the anterior are much larger ; toes in the same 
plane, all connected by reticulated webs, the first shortest, the second an 
inch shorter than the fourth, which is considerably longer than the third, 
scaly at the base, scutellate over the rest of their extent. Claws short, 
strong, curved, rather blunt, that of the middle toe with a sharp pectinate 
inner edge. 
Feathers of the head and neck exceedingly small, slender, and of a downy 
texture, those on the fore part of the head a little more compact ; on the 
nape they are elongated, acuminate, and form a longitudinal narrow crest, 
which runs down the back of the neck. The feathers in general are lan- 
ceolate, acuminate, and of moderately dense texture ; those at the junction 
of the neck and breast anteriorly are stififer and more elongated. Wings 
very long, rather narrow, rounded ; the humerus and cubitus very long in 
proportion ; primaries much curved ; secondaries rather narrow, also 
incurved toward the end, the inner extending when the wing is closed far 
beyond the tips of the primaries. Tail short, broad, rounded, of twenty-four 
feathers, which are broad and abruptly acuminate. 
Bill bare, space about the eye, and feet, rich bright yellow, becoming 
brighter before their departure for their breeding grounds ; claws yellowish- 
brown ; tip of the bill brighter than the rest. Iris white, in younger birds 
dusky. The general colour of the plumage is pure white ; the crest, the 
elongated feathers on the fore part of the breast, and those near the edge of 
the cubitus, pale yellow. The alula, primary coverts, and primary quills, 
black, the shafts white, becoming brownish-black toward the end. The 
inner ten secondaries are white, the rest black, more or less tipped with 
greyish- white, their bases white, that colour more extended on the inner than 
the outer, the shafts of all the quills white beneath, those of the secondaries 
tinged with grey. 
Dimensions of an old male. Length to end of tail 61f inches, to end of 
wing 611, to end of claws 661, from the point of the bill to the carpal joint 
40 ; extent of wings 103 ; wing from flexure 24§ ; length of cubitus 15 ; tail 
6f ; bill along the ridge 131, ‘along the edge of lower mandible 15 ; breadth 
of lower mandible at the base 2 ; bare part of tibia 1 ; tarsus 4 T 8 2 ; middle 
toe 4 i, its claw f ; outer toe 4§, its claw T % ; inner toe 3, its claw ^ 5 hind 
toe If, its claw T s j. Weight IT i lbs. 
The Female is rather less, and in as far as I am warranted by the exami- 
